WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us

'An indispensable guide.' Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn'Tech's most valuable teacher.' ForbesSilicon Valley's leading intellectual and the founder of O'Reilly Media explores the upside and the potential downsides of our future - what he calls the 'next economy'.Tim O'Reilly's genius is to identify and explain emerging technologies with world shaking potential - the World Wide Web, Open Source Software, Web 2.0, Open Government data, the Maker Movement, Big Data. 'The man who can really can make a whole industry happen,' according to Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt, O'Reilly has most recently focused on the future of work - AI, algorithms, and new approaches to business organisation that will shape our lives. He has brought together an unlikely coalition of technologists, business leaders, labour advocates, and policy makers to wrestle with these issues. In WTF he shares the evolution of his intellectual development, applying his approach to a number of challenging issues we will face as citizens, employees, business leaders, and a nation.What is the future when an increasing number of jobs can be performed by intelligent machines instead of people, or only done by people in partnership with those machines? What happens to our consumer based societies - to workers and to the companies that depend on their purchasing power? Is income inequality and unemployment an inevitable consequence of technological advancement, or are there paths to a better future? What will happen to business when technology-enabled networks and marketplaces are better at deploying talent than traditional companies? What's the future of education when on-demand learning outperforms traditional institutions? Will the fundamental social safety nets of the developed world survive the transition, and if not, what will replace them?The digital revolution has transformed the world of media, upending centuries-old companies and business models. Now, it is restructuring every business, every job, and every sector of society. Yet the biggest changes are still ahead. To survive, every industry and organisation will have to transform itself in multiple ways. O'Reilly explores what the next economy will mean for the world and every aspect of our lives - and what we can do to shape it.'Tim O'Reilly has been at the cutting edge of the Internet since it went commercial.' New York Times'O'Reilly's ability to quickly identify nascent trends is unparalleled.' Wired'The man who can really can make a whole industry happen.' Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google.'Silicon Valley's leading intellectual.' Inc.

Product Information

Reviews

"Tim O'Reilly has been at the cutting edge of the Internet since it went commercial." * New York Times * "O'Reilly's ability to quickly identify nascent trends is unparalleled." * Wired * "Silicon Valley's leading intellectual." * Inc. * "Tech's most valuable teacher." * Forbes * "The ultimate tech industry thought leader." * Scientific American * "The man who can really can make a whole industry happen." -- Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google "If people want ideas about the future, they should look to O'Reilly to point them out." * Newsweek * "For anyone who wants to know how to prepare for the future - and how we might shape that future in ways that broadly benefit society, not just technological or entrepreneurial elites - WTF is an indispensable guide." -- Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn "Tim O'Reilly's creative insights and moral clarity have made him the trusted guide to waves of technology now sweeping the planet. If you want a better future, don't just read this book, but make sure your friends do, too." -- Erik Brynjolfsson, co-author of THE SECOND MACHINE AGE "So many insights, so much history, so much of our future by the consummate insider who is as much a part of the story as the people and ideas he writes about - I was learning something on more or less every page." -- Dr. James Manyika, Director, McKinsey Global Institute "Tim has been an astute observer of both the successes and the excesses of Silicon Valley. This provocative book distils the lessons he has learned about the power of technology to shape our economy and our lives." -- Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google "If anyone knows how to leverage the power of social media, it's Tim O'Reilly." * Fast Company * "Draws on decades of experience covering tech to illustrate how increasingly intelligent machines are changing the way we work and how they could impact the way we address our most pressing social concerns." * Publishers Weekly * "O'Reilly has an uncanny knack for charting what's ahead. In WTF, he shows us know he does it. At a time of sweeping change, it is a bracing and an exhilarating read." -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America

Author description

Tim O'Reilly is one of the world's most influential tech analysts. As the founder of the publishing company O'Reilly Media, he became known for spotting technologies with world-shaking potential - from predicting the rise of the internet in the 1990s to coining and popularising terms like 'Web 2.0' and 'Open Source' in the 2000s. WTF is his first book aimed at the general reader.